Sermon
Psalms for the Summer: Let Your Face Shine, that We May be Saved! Psalm 80
Publisher transcript
Transcript
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Hello, you are listening to Second City Sermons,
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a ministry of Second City Church in Midtown Harrisburg.
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It's our hope that these sermons will draw you
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more into the life of following God, Father,
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Son and Holy Spirit. Please consider coming and
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joining with us each Sunday morning at 10 a .m.
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in the heart of Midtown Harrisburg. You can find
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us online at secondcitychurch .org and on Facebook,
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Instagram and YouTube. We hope you enjoy this
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sermon. God bless. 80, but I just want to say
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I love the sound of the kids in our church. I
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felt like they were saying amen earlier when
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we were singing. And Psalm 8 came to my mind,
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verse 2, out of the mouths of babies and infants,
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you've established strength because of your foes.
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That there's something lovely in the sound of
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the little ones among us. Praise the Lord for
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them. Let me pray. Lord God, we're thankful for
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Your Word, even these passages that are lesser
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known. and these stories that may be lesser known.
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And God, I pray that we would receive it as Your
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Word and Your gift to us, or You give us Your
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Word because You desire to reveal Yourself to
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us, and that we might find life and life in You,
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the life that we long for, the life that we desire.
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And so Lord, I pray that our ears should be open,
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not just to my words, but to Your words. Their
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hearts would... be softened to you, and that
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we would be desirous having spent this time with
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you to live our life with you in faith and belief
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and trust and love. And we pray all this for
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our good, Lord, but mostly for your glory, for
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the glory of your holy name. In Jesus' name we
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pray, amen. All right, many of you, my guests,
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are familiar with the name Arthur Brooks. Maybe
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you've listened to his podcast, Office Hours.
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Maybe you've heard him as a guest on other podcasts.
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He seems familiar to many. Maybe you've read
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one of his books. He's written a lot of books.
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One of the books is titled Love Your Enemies,
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How Decent People Can Save America From the Culture
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of Contempt. I mean, isn't that just kind of
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an interesting idea that just loving each other
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and fighting against contempt? What an important...
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sort of subject in our time. Maybe you found
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him by just Googling, how can I be happier? And
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there's a reason why maybe you'd find him. He's
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a professor at Harvard's Kennedy School and Harvard
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Business School, but a lot of what his work has
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been focused on is happiness. Maybe you've heard
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about some of the studies that Harvard has done
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over the last decades about human happiness.
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But he studies it, like what is it? How do we
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get it? How is it acquired? Oh, so what can we
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do that we might live happier lives? And he has
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come up with what he calls his sort of four pillars
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of happiness. Here's what they are. Faith. And
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he doesn't necessarily mean the Christian faith,
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though he's a devout Catholic, but he is sort
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of talking about this guiding faith, this guiding
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understanding of where we are, where we're going,
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whose are we. What gives us meaning and perspective?
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Second one is family, sort of foundational bonds
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from which we have a sense of our belonging,
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sort of relational security. The third is friendship.
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by which he means sort of non -contractual social
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relationships outside of family. It's not kind
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of like, I'll just scratch your back, you scratch
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mine. You go to work and that's a contractual
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relationship. I put in these hours, I get paid
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this much, but relationships that exist beyond
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family and these contracts. The third one is
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work. And this has to do with actions that sort
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of exercise your talents. that provide an opportunity
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maybe for a degree of success. And often actually
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he says, most of the time it is tied to the idea
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that what you're doing serves something, serves
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others. And so he says, work in this kind of
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way doesn't have to be work that you're gaining
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money from though it often is. It can be volunteer
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work. It can be joining the English language
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classes this fall. Pastoral plug. that others
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might learn English, right? Or, you know, visiting
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and volunteering over at pacts and ministries,
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or I don't know, all kinds of number of things,
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serving at a food bank. But it's creating value
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in the world that you kind of move into the world.
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You exercise your gifts for the blessing of others
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and for the good of the world. And he's saying
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that these four things, the happiest people in
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the world seem to have these four pillars in
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their life. These four pillars. And I think it's
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just kind of good just to sit there for a moment
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because we tend to, of course, in our world,
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that primarily work brings happiness because
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work brings money. So you work, work, work. So
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you can buy, buy, buy. Maybe you know Chris Jansen's
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famous country song from 2015, Buy Me a Boat.
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I know this crew doesn't listen to country music
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much, but here's how part of it goes. I'm not
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going to sing it. Yeah, I know what they say.
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Money can't buy everything. Well, maybe so, but
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it can buy me a boat. Somebody knows it out there,
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right? Buy me a boat. And of course, the idea
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of maybe says the boat will make you happy, or
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maybe the boat will get you the girlfriend, or
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maybe the boat will facilitate time with friends.
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And maybe there's some degree of truth that it
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can facilitate some of those things. But interestingly,
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Another huge part of his sort of theory of happiness
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is that it has this bedrock idea of contentment
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too. And that contentment is on that first pillar
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of faith. Having a sense that there's meaning
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beyond us and there's actually something that
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you can put your trust in and have meaning in
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and a deep sense of belief and trust. So anyway,
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we're in Psalm 80. And if you were listening
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when I read it, you probably noticed that there
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was a chorus. a refrain. Not all the Psalms do
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this. Actually, not a lot of Psalms do this.
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A lot of Psalms are maybe more like the old hymns
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where they go from stanza to stanza to stanza.
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Kind of like the first song that we sang today.
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But then some have choruses like the last song
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that we sang where it goes back to the same idea
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to repeat it. And this is the refrain that we
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find in 3 and 7 and 19. Restore us, O God. Let
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your face shine that we may be saved. Restore
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us, O God. Let your face shine and we may be
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saved. And that word restore us in Hebrew actually
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can also be translated, turn us back. Turn us
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back and turn to us, which is to say we've been
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going some other direction for life, for meaning,
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for happiness. Turn us back, restore us, turn
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us back to yourself. the author Asaph or at least
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in sort of the lineage of Asaph is asking for
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the people to be turned back because the people
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have sought happiness, their wellbeing, their
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life outside of God. So this cry for restoration,
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what I want you to see today, this cry for God's
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face to shine upon them is because they've sought
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this happiness outside of God. And oddly, I was
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sitting with this passage and I thought, you
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know, this passage actually kind of can have
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these happiness pillars laid on it. So I kinda
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want you to see how this passage fits in with
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these happiness pillars. So I'm not gonna start
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with the first pillar. I'm actually gonna come
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back to that. But the first thing I want you
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to see is that what we have in this psalm is
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a destroyed family. If the second pillar is familial
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relations. What we actually find in this Psalm
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first is a destroyed family. So here's the first
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couple of verses. Give ear, O shepherd of Israel,
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you who lead Joseph like a flock, you who are
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enthroned upon the cherubim shine forth before
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Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh stir up your
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might and come and save us. How does that have
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to do with the family? That's what you're asking.
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Let me tell you. So this Psalm was almost certainly
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written in the context of the Assyrian Empire
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coming in from the North, the Northeast into
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destroy and take over, take away the best and
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brightest of the 10 Northern tribes of Israel.
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Last week, if you were here, you may remember
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that we looked at Psalm... 79, we talked about
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the destruction of Jerusalem and the destruction
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of the temple under the Babylonian exile. That
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happened, that destruction happened in 586. Well,
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the event of this Psalm was about 140 years earlier,
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722, when the Assyrians came in and they destroyed
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the 10 Northern tribes. Well, two of the 10 Northern
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tribes, in fact, the two of the 10 largest of
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the Northern tribes are the tribes of Ephraim
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and Manasseh. In fact, sometimes the 10 northern
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tribes together can be referred to as Ephraim,
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because it was the main one. It was sort of just
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north of Judah and Benjamin. So it was sort of
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the neighboring tribe to the two southern tribes.
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But if you notice, it's not just mentioning these
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two dominant tribes of the 10 northern tribes
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of Israel. Right between those two tribes, kind
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of sandwiched between them is the tribe of Benjamin,
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which was not destroyed by the Assyrians. And
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it's actually, you know, Judah and Benjamin are
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the two Southern tribes of Israel. The 10 Northern
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ones are the ones that were taken over by the
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Assyrians. So why would Benjamin be mentioned
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in the context of this Assyrian conflict sandwiched
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right between Ephraim and Manasseh? What it's
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saying is that our familial relations are destroyed.
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We're being torn apart. They're crying out to
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God, give ear, oh shepherd of Israel, you who
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lead us, keep your family together. And the family
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was destroyed because they did not look to the
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shepherd. They didn't look to the leader. They
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didn't look to their father in heaven. If you've
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been around the Bible a little while, you might
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know that shepherding is a... is a metaphor that's
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kind of common in the scriptures. And that's
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no surprise, of course, they led these pastoral
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lives tending to sheep and all that. And they
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knew the dynamic of a sheep needing to live under
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the care of another. They also knew the dynamic
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as Jesus picks up on in John chapter 15 that
John 15 chapter mention
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we heard that sometimes the sheep want to listen
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to another's voice. They hear other shepherd's
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voice and they say, maybe I should go over there.
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They hear other voices of sort of parental figures
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who are to care for them. They say, let's go
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there. And that's exactly what they were doing
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time and time again. They were saying, you know,
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I don't want to hear, I don't want to hear the
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voice of the good shepherd, our father who has
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led us as his people. I want to listen to other
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shepherds or I just want to be my own shepherd.
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That's what's been, that's what's going on. And
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so they reject the father and the family is destroyed.
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Which is to say in some ways that they sought
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their happiness, but they sought it outside this
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foundational bond. This bond that sort of leads
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them out into life with others. They found it
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in a foundational bond, which was not God. And
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so the happiness which they sought actually destroyed
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one of the things that actually would build their
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happiness. Their families destroyed. Their family
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ties are broken up. breaking up the tribes of
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Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh and all their
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relationships. But, so interestingly, I think
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if you look at the second stanza there, we actually
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find another one of these pillars of happiness
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that's taken down. And I want to call this destitute
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friends, okay, the second, so destroyed families
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and destitute friends. Verse four. Oh Lord, God
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of hosts, how long will you be angry with your
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people's prayers? You fed them with the bread
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of tears and given them tears to drink in full
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measure. You make us an object of contention
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for our neighbors and our enemies laugh among
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themselves." Now, you might think that's odd
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that I would title this under friendships because
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the last thing was enemies. Enemies were mentioned.
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But right before that, talking about neighbors.
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Not family, right? Not those foundational bonds,
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but necessary relationships for our wellbeing
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that exists outside of our families, like our
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neighbors, these relationships that we have outside
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of these immediate family ties. And here it's
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saying that they're torn. They've actually become
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relationships of contention. And why is that?
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One of the reasons is because it says God hasn't
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heard their prayers. He's angry with their prayers,
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right? Oh, Lord God of hosts, how long will you
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be angry with your people's prayers? Does that
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seem strange to you that God would be angry with
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the prayers of his people? I think that's kind
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of maybe an odd passage, odd thing to say. Well,
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here's what had happened, right? Again, this
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is geared towards the Northern tribes, the tribes
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that are sort of set as a whole to be Ephraim
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and Manasseh. They had set up places of prayer.
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They've set up places of prayer all over throughout
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their tribes, but most of those places of prayer
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were not places of prayer that God had told them
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to set up, either to pray to Him or they were
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used actually to pray to other gods. The exile
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itself, this Assyrian exile happens because they've
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decided to worship other gods to pray to other
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idols. They've made other gods and they've offered
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up these prayers, but not to Yahweh, not to the
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true God. And also what they've done, the other
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big reason why the exile happens is because they've
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made these alliances with these neighboring countries
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when God told them not to. So here's an interesting
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thing that's happening. The very thing that they're
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going for, which is friendship with their neighbors,
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is destroyed because they made their friends
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the main thing. So they're setting up these places
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of prayer that are the gods of their neighbors.
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They're making alliances with their neighbors
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in such a way that denies their alliance with
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God, which is to say they're making their friends
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the main thing. Their neighbors are becoming
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the main thing. And what it ultimately ends in
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is destroying the friendship that they have with
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those about them. Think about this. Have you
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ever seen this happen where someone doesn't seem
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to exactly have an identity of their own, but
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their identity exists almost completely in how
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they associate with another. And so they almost
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seem to mimic another's speech. They don't have
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music that they love. They just love the music
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of the other. They don't have jokes that they
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make up. They just make up the jokes of another.
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It's almost as though they're just saying, I
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just wanna be you. And it actually destroys the
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relationship because you don't offer yourself.
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You just sort of mirror the other person completely.
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And the friendship doesn't bring life and fit.
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In fact, the friendship often withers and fades
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because that kind of relationship that's bending
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over backwards just to be whatever the other
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person wants kills the relationship. Those friendships
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don't work. And this is What's happening, these
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10 Northern tribes are saying, we just wanna
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be liked by all these people. And so we're gonna
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put up these places of prayer. We're gonna pray
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to their gods. We're gonna make alliances. And
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what happens is that those friendships wither
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and fade and actually those very relationships
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come in and destroy them. So in some ways, of
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course, God wouldn't listen to their prayers.
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They weren't offered to Him. Their prayers were
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for the sake of them. were for the sake of finding
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their identity in their friendships. Again, this
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song to another of its pillars of happiness that
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was taken away from them. So they lose their
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familiar relationships, they lose their friendships,
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and they also lose their work. So we have destroyed
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families, depleted friendships, and then, sorry,
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What did I say? Not depleted. I have depleted
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work here. What did I say? Destitute. Thank you,
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destitute friends. And depleted work, which is
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to say they're a fruitless vine. That's the last
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sort of main paragraph. And again, this is a
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metaphor that you find in the Bible a lot, the
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metaphor of a vine. And this makes sense, right?
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Just like the shepherd thing makes sense. You're
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like, oh, there's sheep, shepherd, and there's
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like vines. And so they use these metaphors to
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talk about themselves. Vines were to bear fruit.
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As they were tended to, they were to bear fruit.
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As they were pruned and trained along trellises,
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they were to bear fruit. And if you didn't bear
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fruit, what would you do? You'd say, ah, well,
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this is a defunct vine. We need to get rid of
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it and plant something else here so that it will
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bear fruit. And a lot of times Israel as a nation
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was actually talked about as the vine of God.
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And we find this in a few different places. In
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Genesis 49, you can read of Joseph being called
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a fruitful vine near a spring whose branches
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climb over a wall. It's growing because it's
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near the stream of God. Isaiah, we can read this,
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my loved one had a vineyard on a fertile hillside,
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which is say Israel was to be planted by the
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waters of God and in a fertile hillside by the
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Lord. Near the end of Hosea, we can read, he
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will blossom like a vine, referring to Israel,
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the nation. And his fame will be like the wine
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of Lebanon, which is to say that not just as
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he's to be planted by the stream and on a fertile
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soil, but he's to bear, right? This work is to
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actually be sort of the work that Arthur Brooks
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talks about. Something that's offered into the
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world, the blessing of the world. So come to
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this stanza. I'm not gonna read all of it for
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us, but starting in verse eight. You brought
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a vineyard out of Egypt. You drove out the nations
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and planted it. You cleared the ground for it.
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It took deep root and filled the land. The mountains
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were covered with its shade, the mighty cedars
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with its branches. It sent out its branches to
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the sea and its shoots to the river. Why then
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have you broken down its walls so that all who
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pass along the way pluck its fruit? The boar
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from the forest ravages it and all that move
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in the field feed on it." Now again, maybe kind
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of like prayers. I think we get to this and we
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do go, wait, why would God do this? Why would
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God break down the walls and allow the boar from
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the forest to ravage the plant? Well, this is
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answered for us in John chapter 15 that we heard,
John 15 chapter mention
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every branch in me that does not bear fruit,
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he takes away. And every branch that does bear
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fruit, he prunes that it may bear more fruit.
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Artie, you're clean because of the word that
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I've spoken to you, abide in me and I in you,
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as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless
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it abides in the vine, neither can you unless
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you abide in me. So why are the walls broken
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down? Why are the boars from the forest coming
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in ravaging the plants? Because they're not bearing
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the fruit of abiding in the vine. And Lord says
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enough. Lord says enough. So here's what's happening.
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Here's what I'm suggesting in this. What this
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psalm is doing is saying that you've sought to
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find this happiness in these things, but you've
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sought to find them outside of me. You know,
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in your family relations and your friends and
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in your work, these are to be actually places
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that you're to grow and to bear fruit and to
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have life, but all along they're doing it outside
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of the Lord. destroyed family, destitute friendships,
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depleted work. So Arthur Brooks has more to say,
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of course. He's written all these books. But
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he's an economist, and so a lot of times he uses
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economic language. And he says that oftentimes
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with these four pillars we over -index, or what
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we do is we don't diversify. So we put all of
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our chips in one pillar. So we're like, oh, happiness
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can happen if I just work, work, work, work,
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work, or if I just give all of my life to my
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family. So Israel was putting their happiness
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basket. At this time, a lot of what they were
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doing is they were putting their happiness basket
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into their friendship relationships, into their
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relationships with their neighbors. Like I said,
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they put up these high places and they worship
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the gods of their neighbors and they made all
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these alliances and they said, we're just going
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to do whatever we can because we need friends.
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That of course happens to us. We'll give up on
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a lot of other things if we could just make a
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friend. We kind of make that the God. The thing
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that will bring us happiness. But for the most
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part in our world, we kind of put a lot of our
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chips. You know, we kind of over index into our
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work We find our meaning in what we can accomplish
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Maybe the amount of money we can make how many
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people we can serve man that can make us feel
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good And of course we need to hear all work and
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no play makes Jack a dull boy But also think
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about this I think actually within the within
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Christian settings a lot of times what we can
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do is we can sort of overplay the family card
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Like family becomes the main thing, right? What
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we want to do is we just want to keep everybody
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really, really close. So weekends are meant almost
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exclusively for family things. And actually friendships
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sometimes can diminish. One of the other pillars
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can be swallowed up by another. You can think
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about dating and about romance. about how we
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put so many chips into that. We put all of our
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energy into that that actually work and these
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other things diminish. And then when you get
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the date, you're like, what do I talk about?
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Because this is the main thing I've been thinking
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about all the time, which is just say we over
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index, we don't diversify. And Brooke says, you've
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got to have all four of these pillars. So what's
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missing for Israel? Well, what's missing for
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Israel? I wonder, maybe it's missing for you.
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It's worth asking the question. What's missing
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for Israel's faith? Trust. Belief. Commitments
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to the Lord. I mean, you think about it, it's
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not that Israel didn't want family. They did.
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They even wanted sort of a father to look down
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upon them and help give them direction like a
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shepherd. But they didn't want the great shepherd.
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They wanted other voices to care for them and
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to tend to them. And it's not that they didn't
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want friendship. Obviously they did. They just
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made their friends the determining thing of their
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life. And so their prayers went up to the gods
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of their neighbors. And their friendships became
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contentious relationships because they held more
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than they were intended to hold. And it's not
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that they didn't want to produce or to work.
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to bring something into the world. I mean, we
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are all made for that, but we're made to do that
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in connection with the divine. And so here's
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the refrain that we hear, right? In verse three,
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verse seven, down in verse 19. Restore us, O
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God, let your face shine that we may be saved.
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But just say, turn us back. Because we're running
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after these other things to give us our meaning
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and our happiness and they are good things, but
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they are not good things in and of themselves.
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If we put all of our chips in these baskets,
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they cannot hold it. They're good. They're to
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be sought after, but not in and of themselves.
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Restore us to your self. Let your face shine
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on us that we may be saved. And if you're thinking
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that sounds familiar. Well, you should be thinking
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that. Of course, that phrase comes from the great
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Aaronic blessing that the priests would speak
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over the people morning and evening as we so
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often do in Christian services at the end of
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our services with the great benediction, Lord
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bless you and keep you and make his face to shine
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upon you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon
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you, give you his peace. What he's saying is
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give us faith. Renew us again. Help us to turn
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from these other things that we're kind of banking
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on to give us life and meaning and happiness
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and joy and all the rest and turn us to you.
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They're asking for faith that the Lord be gracious
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to them. Faith that they will not find their
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meaning in what they do or don't do. Faith that
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God is the source of their peace. Not these other
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things of family and friends and work. So one
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of the stories, one of the stories behind this
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time period, and maybe actually that was happening
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right in the right at the same time of writing
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this Psalm, we're not totally sure. But one of
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the stories that happens around the time of the
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of the Assyrian exile, and actually just sort
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of just after the Assyrian exile, we read for
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part of part of we had part of it we had read
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for us from Second Chronicles 30. that Chuck
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read for us. And it's Hezekiah. Hezekiah is this
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good king. He's a righteous king. He's the king
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of the Southern tribes. He actually lived during
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the time of the Assyrian destruction of the 10
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Northern tribes in their exile. And so he has
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this spiritual renewal and they desire us to
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follow the Lord. And what he does is he says,
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okay, everybody has got to come and worship the
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Lord in Jerusalem. And we need the priests I
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don't know if you caught that actually, it says
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they had to celebrate the Passover in this month
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because there weren't enough priests yet who
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had consecrated themselves. They needed the priests
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there because they were to lead the people in
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worship and lead them in the Passover sacrifices
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and meals, but they were also the ones who were
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supposed to speak God's blessing, His benediction
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that God's face would shine upon them to them.
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And so, What Hezekiah does is he established
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this and he says, hey, we're going to have this
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great feast in Jerusalem. We're going to celebrate
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the Passover and the priests are going to speak
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the blessing over God's people. And he says,
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send out word to everybody. And if you noticed
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actually the passage there in the second Chronicles
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30, it actually mentions Ephraim and Manasseh,
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but this is after the, after the Assyrian exile.
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So he's saying, hey, you've seen You've seen
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that this sort of life of looking for your happiness
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and your family and your friendships and your
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work won't bring it to you outside of God. And
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so come, come and worship Him and receive His
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declaration that His face is shining upon you.
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He invites all these people to Jerusalem, all
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these 10 tribes of the North and the two tribes
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of the South. And He's trying to unite them again
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around this idea that outside of God, you cannot
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have the happiness and the joy for which you
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deeply long. But what did they do? I don't know
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if, you know, this is like one of those weird
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passages that are not terribly well known. So
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I'm sure you probably heard Chuck read it and
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you're like, whoop, whoop, you know, that kind
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of thing. Well, let me read verse 10 again for
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you. Okay. So the couriers, the guys that are
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inviting everybody to Jerusalem, the couriers,
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the people that are bringing these letters, invitations
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out, went from city to city through the country
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of Ephraim and Manasseh. And as far as Zebulon,
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up in the Northern part, but they laughed them
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to scorn and mocked them. They laughed them to
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scorn and mocked them. They thought, no, no,
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no, no. No, we actually think that happiness
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can just be found in our family relationships
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that we have or in the work that we produce or
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in the friendships that we have. I don't have
-
any interest in that whole God thing. And of
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course, I think part of the question for us is
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what would you have done? Actually, what are
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you doing? How are you indexing, right? How are
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you diversifying? Where does faith fit for you?
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So if we turn to the last section there in this
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Psalm, Psalm 80, verse 14 down, it says, turn
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again, O God of hosts, look down from heaven
-
and see, have regard for this vine, this rock
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that your right hand planted, and for the son
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whom you made strong for yourself. They've burned
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it with fire, they've cut it down, May they perish
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at the rebuke of your face, but let your hand
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be on the man of your right hand, the son of
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man whom you have made strong for yourself. And
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we shall turn back from you, give us life and
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we'll call upon your name." And of course, as
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Christians, we read that and we say, this is
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talking about our Lord Jesus. It's looking forward
-
to the fact that God will restore His wayward
-
people. He's going to have grace. He's going
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to make quite literally His face to shine upon
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them. the image of the invisible God for the
-
world to see. And think about it, when we look
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to Jesus, when we look to the Gospels, specifically
-
the Gospel of John, almost every single thing
-
that we have mentioned to us here in this text
-
is found in Christ. So in John chapter six, Jesus
-
says that He and the Father are one and all whom
-
the Father has given Him, He will not cast out.
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There's this familial reality. You're in a part
-
of a new family with Jesus. He offers a lasting
-
family, the new foundational relationship from
-
which you can go out into the world. John chapter
John 15 chapter mention
-
15, Jesus says, no longer do I call you servants.
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The servant does not know what his master's doing,
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but I've called you friends, which is to say
-
a servant is a contractual kind of thing in a
-
way. He's saying that's not our relationship.
-
We're friends. Jesus is offering that pillar
-
of friendship to us. John chapter 15, he says,
John 15 chapter mention
-
I am the vine, you're the branches, whoever abides
-
in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much
-
fruit. Offering something out into the world
-
as you abide in Christ. But all of this, all
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of this in the gospels, and I think what this
-
text here in Psalm 80 is getting at. This thing
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for which we desire, right? Family bonds, which
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unite us in a way that help us to go out into
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the world and in life. Non -contractual friendships.
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Work that offers something out into the world
-
that is productive and a blessing. What I think
-
this Psalm is telling us, and I think what we
-
see as we put these things together in these
-
texts in John, is those only will take root.
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Those only will actually give meaning if you
-
have that first pillar in place first, faith.
-
You cannot bear fruit apart from the Lord. Your
-
family and your friendships will be places of
-
control and of domineering. with outside of the
-
Lord. It's true, seek first his kingdom, his
-
righteousness. All the other things will be added
-
unto you. Look to Christ, the shining face of
-
God, who offers you a new family, a greater friendship.
-
greater fruit bearing life in the world. Apart
-
from Him, we can do nothing. And yet with Him
-
is lasting happiness and joy. Let me pray for
-
us. Lord, think of these stories and this Psalm,
-
the occasion of the writing of this Psalm, and
-
it's distant from us. And they're stories that
-
are not terribly well known, stories of Hezekiah.
-
the Assyrians, and we're talking about stuff
-
that is long ago, and yet how much it really
-
does speak to our dynamics, God. I pray that
-
you would shine your blessing upon us, that we
-
have people that know joy, a deep happiness,
-
and that we would that we'd be fruitful in our
-
work, that we desire to live productive, meaningful
-
lives, serving others, producing in your world.
-
God, that you'd give us friendships. Maybe new
-
friendships would be birthed today at our picnic.
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That would truly increase our happiness, our
-
sense of wellbeing and life. God, that you would
-
bless our families. God, but I pray that each
-
of these things that we desire, good desires,
-
we would place them upon the foundation of faith,
-
of belief, of trust in you, of looking to you,
-
looking to your face, looking to the work of
-
Christ for us. God, that we would be those who
-
seek first the kingdom. and your righteousness,
-
and then know that the other things would be
-
added. That we wouldn't seek those things as
-
the kingdom, but the fruit of the kingdom. God,
-
please do this. What a passage that seems so
-
old, is so applicable to us. Apply it to our
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lives, we pray, by the work of your Holy Spirit.
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In Jesus' name, amen. Thank you for listening
-
to Second City Sermons podcast. We hope this
-
sermon has encouraged you to worship God and
-
to celebrate the gospel of Jesus. Please consider
-
subscribing to this podcast and joining us in
-
person each Sunday at 10 a .m. You can find us
-
online at secondcitychurch .org and on Instagram,
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Facebook, and YouTube. Thanks again for listening.
-
God bless.